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Mike McQueary testifies he thinks he saw Jerry Sandusky molest boy

December 16, 2011 | 9:03
am

Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary testified Friday during a preliminary hearing for two school officials accused of lying to a grand jury about the child sex-abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky that he told school administrators he saw Sandusky sexually molesting a boy but said he wasn't certain that it was intercourse.

He testified Friday about what he saw at a preliminary hearing for former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and former senior vice president Gary Schultz. They are accused of providing inaccurate information to a Pennsylvania grand jury and failing to report allegations of child sex abuse involving former assistant coach Sandusky to law enforcement authorities.

McQueary said he watched for a couple of seconds from about six feet away before turning away in disgust, he testified.

"I heard rhythmic slapping sounds, two or three slaps that sounded like skin on skin. I was already alarmed, embarrassed. I believe he was sexually molesting the boy," McQueary said in court.

McQueary said he was so horrified he called his father, who told him to tell coach Joe Paterno, which McQueary did.

McQueary said he described what he saw and that he told Paterno that Sandusky was in a "sexual" act with the child and described it as "extremely sexual." McQueary testified that he did not give Paterno explicit details of what he believed he'd seen, saying he wouldn't have used terms like sodomy out of respect for the longtime coach. He said he described it as "rough positioning" of Sandusky and the boy.

Paterno told him, "I'm sorry you had to see that" and that he had "done the absolute right thing," McQueary said, who added that Paterno "slumped back in his chair."

Ten days after speaking with Paterno, he said, he met with Curley and Schultz.

"There is no question in my mind that I conveyed to them that I saw Jerry Sandusky in the showers with a boy and there was severe sexual acts going on and it was wrong and over the line," he said in court. But he said he did not use the words "anal intercourse" or "sodomy."

McQueary said Schultz never followed up with him but that neither Schultz nor Curley told him not to talk to anyone.

When asked why he didn't go to police, he said Schultz had overseen the campus police."I thought I was talking to the head of the police, to be frank with you," he said.